Doctor Who, “The Lodger” (5.11)

The Doctor almost ruins another relationship. Check out how in the review…

How’s The Doctor?

He’s incapable of being normal. It’s more than that: he fails at not being awesome. He’s great at soccer without knowing it. He cooks sweet omelettes. He a great motivational speaker, shown by the fact he can get Craig’s girlfriend to pursue her dreams. He’s even good at Craig’s job despite having never done it before. This leads to another fact: The Doctor can’t help his being awesome, even when it hurts others. I doubt The Doctor was ever malicious in the way he was showing off, when it affects Craig in any case. There are chances that this was the same when it came to Mickey and Rose and Rory and Amy. He just couldn’t help being that great… and stealing their girls.

How’s Amy?

She takes care of the TARDIS pretty well for someone who knows nothing about it. Despite my interest in seeing more Doctor-Amy-Rory trio adventures, there should have been more adventures with just Amy and The Doctor, not them and River Song, not them and Van Gogh. Just the two of them being awesome.

How’s The Story?

The episode feels a lot like “Blink.” It isn’t big and adventure-filled and it’s set in a very normal setting. While it feels like “Blink,” the character story plays out a lot like “Amy’s Choice”: The Doctor (or the Dream Lord) wrecks havoc on a relationship but, in the end, the relationship ends up being stronger. Now, for the other stuff:

Seriously? Perception filters, again?

How come no one at the soccer game finds it odd that this guy’s name is just “The Doctor”?

The head butt of information was awesome. Someone’s using Bump app technology, it seems.

The episode does a nice little callback to The Doctor’s new catchphrase when Craig says “Geronimo.”

In Conclusion

Despite the fact the episode is very reminiscent of the recent and great “Amy’s Choice,” this episode is good all on it’s own. It’s funny and entertaining and makes for a good light, pre-finale adventure.